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| Spain Rally past Tunisia 3-1 to Qualify for Knockout Stage |
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Spain, who downed Ukraine 4-0 in their group opener, waited until the second half to equalize through Raul and go on to win in style from two more goals thanks to Fernando Torres. Joahar Mnari put Tunisia into a shock lead after great work from Ziad Jaziri inside the penalty area in the eighth minute. The ball from Jaziri found Mnari whose initial shot was saved by Iker Casillas but he tucked away the rebound. Xabi Alonso fired in a cracking effort from 30 meters in the 39th minute out but the ball went well wide of Tunisia goalkeeper Ali Boumnijel's left-hand post. The rain poured down on the pitch after 40 minutes making conditions increasingly difficult for the players. Raul, who was on in the second half for Luis Garcia, equalized in the 71st minute by pouncing on Boumnijel's poor parry from Cesc Fabregas' weak shot inside the area. It was Raul's first goal since October 19, 2005 when he scored against Rosenberg in the Champions League. Five minutes later, Spain was 2-1 ahead. Torres, 22, scored Spain's second goal as the Atletico Madrid striker latched on to a Fabregas pass and rounded keeper Boumnijel to put the Spaniards into the lead. Torres, who was top scorer for Spain in the qualifiers with seven goals, killed off the game in the final minute. He picked himself up after he was fouled to fire in the spot-kick. "We were rather nervous in the first half, " said Tunisia coach Roger Lemerre. "Spain pushed us to the limit in the second half and our players were tired." He added: "The match was not extremely aggressive but we have too much respect for the rivals among the players." Lemerre, who was the first coach to guild France and Tunisia to different continental champions, said he is realist when asked about Tunisia's last group match against Ukraine. "I am a realist. I am neither an optimist nor an pessimist. I hope our team can go far. Ukraine is at the same situation with us, but we know the result will be decided in the last match." Spain coach Luis Aragones said the victory is very important for Spain's future. "It's a very tough game," he said. "Tunisia played counter attacking football. We played too many long passes. We have problems in the first half. But in the second, we played extremely well and could play our style. That is technical skill." "We played better in the second half. We deserved the win." It was really a victory spared for Raul, the country's record scorer with 43 goals in 95 games. He was confined to making a second half substitute appearance replacing two-goal hero David Villa of Valencia in the 55th minute in their last game. Ukraine stayed second in the group standings after beating Saudi Arabia 4-0 in the day's another game. Tunisia and Saudi Arabia each collected one point after drawing with each other. Switzerland clinched their first World Cup win in Germany, beating Togo 2-0 despite a boring performance with nothing of an entertaining brand of football. The first goal came in 16 minutes when Tranquillo Barnetta, at the far post, proded Ludovic Magnan's cross into the path of Alex Frei, who poked the ball into the net. Barnetta made it 2-0 for the Swiss in the dying minutes, arrowing a sweet strike in at the far post after being set up by a straight away pass from substitute forward Mauro Lustrinelli, who got the ball on the left and stroked it along the width of the penalty area. With the victory, Switzerland moved temporarily to the top of Group G standings alongside South Korea, who also have four points after beating Togo 2-1 in their World Cup opener and drawing 1-1 with France on Sunday, while Togo were sent packing with two losses from as many matches. The World Cup debutants had put Monday's match in doubt with an aborted boycott launched by Togolese players, as they refused to board the bus on Sunday morning before being threatened with sanctions by FIFA and finally flying for Dortmund. The Togo squad have been embroiled in a pay dispute since before the tournament started and has also endured turmoil with coach Otto Pfister leaving then being re-instated as coach. In the do-or-die clash against Switzerland on Monday, Togo have been knocked out of their stride by the Swiss' opening goal and hardly touched the ball since. Togo coach Otto Pfister was obviously not pleased by what his team played, making his first substitute on as early as the 25th minute to replace Beveren midfielder Kuami Agboh with Stade Brest forward Moustapha Salifou. But it's Togo that looked more dangerous in front of the opponents' goalmouth in the first half, while a penalty claim late in the first half from Emmenuel Adebayor, who left alone his duty of marking the Switzerland defender at set-pieces and concentrated in going forward, was turned down by Paraguayan referee Carlos Amarilla. The Arsenal striker, impressive through out the match, burst into the box and seemed to be tripped on 35 minutes, but Amarilla ruled it a dive as Adebayor's tumble was too dramatic. There were other Adebayor Moments besides the "tackle". After just 6 minutes into the match, the 22-year-old headed a pass to Mohamed Kader, but the striker's lukewarm shot caused no trouble for Swiss keeper Pascal Zuberbuehler. Four minutes later, Adebayor took advantage of an ill-timed slip by Ricardo Cabanas to rob the ball and burst into the penalty box. His cross was just too high for Mohamed Kader. Adebayor then closed down the Swiss keeper and collided with him for no apparent reason, no harm done though. Togo failed to get back into the game in the second half, only to give the Europeans an important victory. (Xinhua News Agency June 20, 2006) |
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